certified and award-winning

certified and award-winning

cross-sector consulting and training

cross-sector consulting and training

for social impact

for social impact

Our expertise is collaboration.

Today, the vast majority of solutions lie in the intersections between communities, departments, organizations, and industries.

Our team is composed of diverse cross-industry experts who have the unique ability to see this big picture. Making strategic connections that lie at these intersections allows us to innovate on the best solutions - locally and globally - and is what distinguishes Advancing Agency from other consulting providers.

We  bring not only professional expertise, but also the lived experience to comprehensively grasp the entire cycle of movements for the public good.

This uniquely positions us to be a strategic partner to people and organizations in their endeavors to create lasting legacies of meaningful change. 

We work worldwide with a wide range of clients who want to create social impact for the public good.

Our clients are business start-ups, established national nonprofits, international NGOs, philanthropists, grant-makers, city and government agencies, legislators, leaders, executives, multinational businesses, local communities, and political campaigns.

Affiliations and Awards

Meet Our Founding Leads

Ayda Zugay

As an award-winning leader, published author, and activist, Ayda is a believer in people’s individual capacity to drive global change. A refugee trailblazer, she uses her multinational, diverse field expertise to create and mobilize positive change across government, market, and civil society. She has lived and worked in Europe, North America, and Africa either as an implementing partner of UNHCR, leading nonprofits and companies, consulting for heads of state, or speaking internationally about human rights, policy, and her experience as a refugee. 


Ayda is also an Elected Delegate representing Massachusetts for Refugee Congress and is a member of Refugees International’s Refugee Advocacy Lab whose goal is to grow the diverse constituency for U.S. leadership on refugee protection by building partnerships and supporting inclusive policies. In 2021, Ayda was chosen as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Leaders by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce whose prior year’s awardees include Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and Mayor Michelle Wu. Ayda was also honored as one out of ten leaders selected to participate in Harvard Business School’s Young American Leaders Program whose goal is to inspire collaborative innovation in cities across the U.S. to bring shared prosperity to America’s communities. In 2022, Ayda was selected as one of the global “Resilient 100” leaders by the Refugee Investment Network, honoring Advancing Agency.

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Email / LinkedIn

Brenna Callahan

Brenna has nearly a decade of experience in nonprofits and government, serving organizations such as the City of Boston, Generation Citizen, and Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston. A writer at heart, Brenna has additional experience in press/media strategy, digital and social media, brand development, web design, email marketing, and more. She writes, edits, and designs everything from speeches and blog posts to social media and marketing collateral. Her work focuses on creative, strategic, equity-centered storytelling that compels people to pause, digest, and think. Prior to kickstarting her career, Brenna graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor’s in English & Women’s/Gender Studies and recently earned a Master’s in Public Administration from Suffolk University. 

Pronouns: She/her

Email / LinkedIn / Website

Molly Cohen

Molly Cohen is a leading facilitator, project manager, and partnerships strategist who uses her insight and experience for social impact. She brings over a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector, supporting organizations including Diversity Talks, Generation Citizen, City Year, and the Dutchess County Domestic Violence Services. Fundamentally, her work focuses on amplifying marginalized voices in order to catalyze systemic change, as she believes the people most impacted by problems should be able to determine the solutions.

Having held diverse roles in partnerships, programming, fundraising, external affairs, and management, Molly brings a uniquely effective approach to facilitating cross-functional collaboration within and across organizations. She has a knack for analyzing complex processes, pinpointing what’s working and what isn’t, and collaboratively developing responses.  Her results speak for themselves - multiple organizations have doubled their programming or tripled their earned income as a result of her leadership. The common thread of Molly’s career has been a focus on creating processes that empower individuals to reflect personally, think critically, and take collective action towards justice. She has facilitated hundreds of in-person and virtual sessions to support professional development, strategic planning, confronting oppression, community-led design, consensus-oriented decision-making, and other collaborative work. 

Pronouns: She/her

Email / LinkedIn